tana french's The Likeness

I have had a few people ask me about my recently read books in the sidebar and their star rating.  If you click on the book, it takes you to the Amazon page, and not to my thoughts.  I have to figure out how to fix that, but in the meantime I do want to give notes on those worth it.  This is not a review, because I dislike what that implies.  It's just my two cents.

I read Tana French's first book, In The Woods for book club earlier this year.  While there are some frustrating things about that book - namely, major plot points remain unresolved - I really enjoyed her writing.  I didn't think I would be a detective novel reader, but I do have a forensics fasination, and French delves into the nitty gritty.

The Likeness puts one of the main detectives from In The Woods on a new case a year or so later.  The premise is really, really hard to swallow.  So unlikely that if you can't get past it, you can't enjoy the book.  Cassie - the detective - is apparently a ringer for a murdered college girl, and she moves into the house and life as Lexie, the murdered girl.  So the friends don't know Lexie has been murdered, and Cassie pretends to be Lexie (home from the hospital!  healed from an attack!) for the next month.

Obviously, suspension of disbelief is required here.  I know several sets of identical twins, and after almost any length of time you can tell them apart.  So to buy that Cassie is able to pretend to be Lexie - a complete stranger - is, well, ridiculous. 

But get over it.

Because the book is good.  I had dreams about these characters, that is how engrossed I became.  The thing I notice most about French is how she doesn't leave anything out.  Most modern books are written in the same concise way that movies are edited.  That is, conversations and jumps of time are condensed for storytelling purposes.  Not so with French.  She gives you every sentence of that conversation.  Which could be dullsville, but it's not.  It keeps you aware of each character's nuances and gives you anticipation for the next Big Event.  The structure is not "And then this happened, and then this.  Then this!"  It's almost like real-time storytelling.

I ate it up. 

The ending is more satisfying than In The Woods, if that matters to you as a reader.  What she did with In The Woods didn't bother me as much as it did a few of the others in my book club.  But The Likeness is an excellent escapist read.  I like those.

(Also in my sidebar is a link to my goodreads to-read list.  If you have any recommendations, I'll take 'em!)